Santa Monica College Prepares for the Return to Campus
As Los Angeles County moves from the purple to red tier, Santa Monica College is preparing for a small number of people to return to campus.
The Santa Monica College (SMC) Board of Trustees had a meeting on March 12 about the return of students and faculty, led by SMC’s police chief, Johnnie Adams. It covered current and future protocols that will be implemented at SMC and the roadmap to recovery, which can be found on SMC’s website under ‘COVID-19 updates,' to ensure a safe return to campus for all faculty, staff, and students.
Late afternoon, in the 11th week of spring semester, the campus of Santa Monica College (SMC) is deserted, on Thursday, April 30 2020, in Santa Monica, California. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in late March all SMC campuses were closed and classes moved to online only. On Thursday, April 30, the college announced all the fall semester classes will be online. (Marco Pallotti |The Corsair)
Discussing the implementation of safety policies is the easy part, the hard part is the execution. When it comes to the incoming move from the purple to the red tier (the most restrictive of the four tiers to the second) SMC does not automatically lighten their safety standards. “It's not just, the county says okay, [SMC] has to make sure that everybody is trained, understands the protocols, knows how to carry them out, and to have the equipment on hand to make it safe for everybody,” Chief Adams said. Unfortunately, SMC might not be as quick to lessen the safety restrictions as other Southern California colleges.
“We have to compare UCLA vs. SMC, they have 25,000 employees and [SMC] has 1,800,” Adams said. Although SMC is lacking in staff, they are not slacking when it comes to knowledge and implementation of safety protocols. Luckily, SMC is on a steady pace to safely begin installing these protocols with athletes for the three spring sports returning to campus, which are track and field, tennis, and swimming.
A crucial stepping stone in the return to campus is having enough supplies. Currently, SMC has close to 1.4 million disposable medical masks, enough portable hand wipe stations to put into classrooms, and hand sanitizer pumps on all building walls. SMC has recently purchased cleaning caddies, which are carts custodians will use that carry all the supplies aforementioned. This will help them quickly clean an area or surface that was recently touched.
Another product SMC has purchased to clean surfaces are ‘foggers’ — a mechanism that can clean a large area at once. In addition, SMC has upgraded all the air filtration systems to hospital-grade Mur-13 systems. If the building does not support the Mur-13 system, the school installed new portable air purifiers.
“We’re really moving forward with so many different things that we are in the process of purchasing or that we already have on hand. We have also worked with the state because they do provide certain things," Adams said, referring to the 1.4 million masks. He added that SMC is constantly evaluating other businesses and how they operate in order for the school to function at the highest and safest level.
When students were asked what kind of protocols they would like implemented, the answers tend to coincide with the current guidelines. “There should be a mask mandate, social distancing, and handwashing,” said Alexandra Schoch, a current SMC student. Many students feel like as long as the best safety policies are in place and masks are worn, they feel safe coming back to campus.
“My outlook has always been, let’s get it right the first time, let’s make sure we have everything right, and then let's push forward,” Adams said. Students can expect a message soon from Dr. Kathryn E. Jeffrey, President of the Board of Trustees, outlining what the future will look like this fall.
